Language committee

Language committee
For requesting users
Requests Proposal policy Handbook (requesters) Incubator manual
For members
Handbook (committee) Voting policy
Information
Common answers Discussion archives
Closing projects (voluntarily)
Closing projects policy Proposals
This box: view · talk · edit

Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees committees Governance Committee Audit Committee Talent & Culture Committee Product & Technology Committee Community Affairs Committee Staff committees Communications committee Community-wide committees Affiliations Committee Language committee Wikimania Committee Movement governance committees Elections Committee Ombuds commission Case Review Committee UCoC Coordinating Committee Movement-wide preparation committees Movement Charter Drafting Committee Charter Electoral Commission U4C Building Committee UCoC drafting committees Resources allocation committees Conference Support Committee Regional Fund Committees All Wikimedia committees Committee Support team (WMF)

The Wikimedia Foundation language committee is in charge of developing a clear policy and documentation for new language projects and their proposal, processing those requests, and supporting and coordinating new projects to optimize their success.

Historically, it was founded as a subcommittee of the Special Projects Committee. With that committee now defunct, it reports directly to the Wikimedia Board of Trustees.

The Language Committee mainly acts in the Requests for new languages process by reviewing the requests, giving advice and eventually recommending the creation of new language versions to the Board. Individual Langcom members also take care of the proposals for closing projects. If you have any questions (for example about the possible requesting of a new language version), please direct these to the talk page or directly to any member.

This is a proofread version of the original charter with a later amendment authorizing request approval.

The committee is tasked as follows.

1. The development and maintenance of:
   1. a clear step-by-step policy (based on quantitative indicators) for evaluating the feasibility of new language wikis, with an automated procedure for project development;
   2. support and policy development for script and localization related problems;
   3. documentation to support new language communities towards a stable growth rate;
   4. support and coordination for cross-language projects, helping smaller communities share resources and maximize their results;
   5. support and coordination to maintain compatibility among the different MediaWiki installations, in order to reduce the amount of development needed to upgrade the program base as far as localization is concerned.
2. The processing of requests for new language subdomains of existing Wikimedia projects, providing it gives the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees four days advance notice before approving a request.

The goals of the committee are to:

1. minimize the political aspects connected to the release of new projects, moving the focus towards purely quantitative decision criteria;
2. minimize the need of localization-related funding and development by providing a common shared policy;
3. maximize the reuse of proven marketing techniques among different editions;
4. maximize the co-operation level among different language communities by providing common fields of activity;
5. achieve the widest possible localization level for MediaWiki at the lowest cost, in order to maintain and improve its leading role as an open-source content management system.

• The whole set of activities of the language committee is public, and any advice from the community is welcome.
• The committee values the fact that projects are a property of the single editors who make it and considers users' necessities as the primary source for policy.
• The committee is especially interested in hearing those who proposed a new wiki in the past and got either refused or approved.

If you want to make a proposal to the committee, for example to approve a certain project, please do so on the talk page.

Anyone can follow the discussions of the language committee by subscribing to the public mailing list langcom at lists.wikimedia.org, on which the internal proceedings are made. Non-members should generally not participate in discussions. When it is necessary however, they can send a mail which a list administrator will need to accept manually.

Prior to April 2013, the discussions happened on a private mailing list. From June 2011 to April 2013, members of the community could ask to become "langcom observers". They then received copies of the e-mails sent to the internal committee mailing list.

The committee resumed the use of a private mailing list for the discussion of confidential or personal matters in 2017.

If you are interested in becoming a member, please send an email to langcomlists.wikimedia.org or contact any member in private.

• James Heilman (August 2017–Jan 2022)
• NTymkiv (WMF) (Jan 2022–)
• Victoria (April 2023–)

This is an unofficial log of the committee's progress. For a log of requests and closures, see requests for new languages.

Timeline of the Language Committee

Date	Event	Update
2006-06-06	policy	SabineCretella draft proposed.
2006-07-03	langcom	Subcommittee initially proposed, but the proposal is never received.
2006-09-16	langcom	Subcommittee is proposed again, and accepted.
2006-11-11	policy	Pathoschild draft unofficially proposed.
2006-11-21	policy	Pathoschild draft implemented through the community without subcommittee approval.
2007-01-02	policy	GerardM draft proposed.
2007-01-14	policy	GerardM-Pathoschild policy draft proposed.
2007-02-06	policy	GerardM-Pathoschild policy draft selected; discussion begins on adjustments needed before the final version.
2007-02-20	policy	GerardM-Pathoschild policy draft finalized and forwarded to the Special projects committee for comment.
2007-02-26	policy	GerardM-Pathoschild draft implemented.
2007-04-28	policy	Subcommittee authorized to approve without board approval, given the board receives five days advance notice.
2009-01-20	langcom	The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees decided that the Subcommittee becomes a Committee.
2011-05-13	langcom	The committee holds its first-ever real-life meeting in Berlin.
2011-06	langcom	Introduction of observers
2013-04-13	langcom	switch to a public mailing list, mail:langcom

• Wikimedia committees
• foundation:Resolution:Wikimedia Committees